Day 165: From All Angles

Day 165. I just signed up to take a weekend class by producer Mark Stolaroff called The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking. Sounds perfect for what I’m doing, huh? I discovered this guy’s site by accident when I stumbled on an article he’d written about which camera to use for your no budget film. To paraphrase something I read that he said, “Who cares which camera you use? Just make your movie.” How could I not fall in love with that attitude? I think he’ll bring a different perspective to what I’m setting out to do with my films. I’m sure he comes at filmmaking from a completely different angle than my two mentors. And I want to “see” from as many different angles as I can! We’ll see if his class lives up to his awesome articles. No matter what, I’m sure it will be expansive to meet him, hear what he has to say and be in the energy of fellow indie filmmakers. And right in line with his mantra of No-Budget Film School, it wasn’t expensive to take the weekend. Actually, I’m hoping I’ll have one of my films in the can by the time I take the class considering it isn’t until August 4th. But who knows at the rate I’m going. Script development is at a snail’s pace. Or at least it feels that way. I’m getting a wee bit impatient. Which brings me to the Writing Crusade. I actually had a great day with the script. I did stand down, for the most part, from writing pages and stayed focused on my outline and filling out my beat sheet. I’m probably going to be in the beat sheet again tomorrow because I want to make sure I’m looking at my scenes from every angle, too.

3 Comments

Hey Kelli, thanks for the shout-out and for signing up for the class. I think you’re going to LOVE it. More than anything, you’re going to appreciate the approach. I caught this line in an earlier post of yours, “What would you make from the limited items you have? You wouldn’t starve. You’d get creative.” I talk a lot about this in my class. Working from available resources. Embracing your limitations. Not throwing money at a problem, but instead using your imagination and creativity to solve production issues. This thinking is going to be right down your ally!

And as for the camera choice, for no-budget filmmaking, it’s ultimately about the least important decision you can make. Folks get really hung up on the camera, but it’s not only that there are dozens of cameras that can do the job these days, it’s that the thinking that somehow the camera choice is going to make all the difference is completely flawed. Performances, story and being unique make the difference. Pulling focus (no pun intended) away from the things that are critical to your film’s success is a mistake, and for most no-budget films, camera/format details do just that. And once you have the mentality that you HAVE to have a particular camera, say a RED or an Alexa–that a Canon 60D just will not do–then you are going to have a hard time making all the other necessary compromises that come inherently with no-budget filmmaking. For those who want to read the article, here it is:

It will. Mark is really good at getting his point across, and he’s also not afraid to admit where things could have gone better. His film, Pig (written and directed by Henry Barrial) is still showing at festivals. In Hollywood terms this is a film made for NOTHING, but does more with its tiny budget than one of the giant studios could only dream of. Pig is creative, imaginative, genuinely disturbing and it makes you think. Mark distills all the tips and tricks used to make the movie down into two weekend classes. When I finally get round to making my film, this is the guy I would trust (above anyone) to produce it.